Computer Music-Notation Software
Dr. Jody Nagel
March, 1997

[While there are several good software packages available, I personally use Coda's Finale, (http://www.codamusic.com) and will limit my remarks to what is possible with that program.]

Topics

1. Computer Music-Notation Software has benefited composers in their work tremendously. Here are some of the ways that it has.

2. Understanding what a Computer Music-Notation Program actually does.

3. The order of what to do!

4. Considerations.
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1. Computer Music-Notation Software has benefited composers in their work tremendously. Here are some of the ways that it has.

- You can now produce a score that can look as attractive and well-formatted as a traditional engraved score. You no longer have to settle for pre-printed manuscript paper where all the staves are a fixed distance apart; in a computer-notated score the distance between the staves of each system can be varied as needed so you no longer have to 'cram' your markings into the score. Certain traditional nuisances, such as drawing some of the more difficult symbols (i.e., treble clefs and quarter-rests), trying to keep all the ledger lines parallel and equidistant, and trying to keep all beats vertically aligned within all the staves, are now completely automated.

- The preparation of individual instrumental parts takes place much faster, and the parts are completely accurate and free of the traditional problems of the hand-copyist, (i.e., no more inaccurate rehearsal letters or numbers, missing measures or meter signatures, omissions of notes, tempo markings, or expressive markings, or transposition errors, etc.)

- You can use music-notation software if you wish to 'desktop publish' your own scores, and you can easily create your 'own look' by saving program settings (such as the curve thickness and taper of slurs, or which font to use for the title of the piece, etc.) and using them from one document to another.

- The computer files can be used to print and reprint a score whenever needed.

- It is now much easier to make revisions and correct mistakes with music-notation software than it was with paper, pen and ink. . . and erasers, and white-out, and correction tape! It is physically less stressful on your eyes and fingers using the computer monitor and keyboard (or, if you prefer MIDI input and output, the synthesizer's keyboard) than the old laborious way of staring too close at the paper and holding a pen or pencil for so long that your fingers actually hurt!

- Finally, if you have a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) and a MIDI-compatible synthesizer or sound module, or a sound card included in the computer itself, you can use music-notation software as part of the very process of composing. Most music-notation packages allow for MIDI playback, so a composer can quickly make decisions whether or not to use a particular pitch, scale, chord, rhythm, instrument, doubling, dynamic level, or tempo, etc., based on what is heard from the immediate aural feedback. I personally use paper and pencil and sit at a piano when sketching out the initial ideas for a piece, but I quickly transfer them to the computer and determine basic formal considerations, such as whether a section or a passage is too long or too short, by listening to it in 'real time,' rather than by staring at the paper. The majority of my compositional activities now take place on the computer, and some composers use the computer from the first step to the last. Even if you do not intend to create an 'electronic realization' of your acoustic composition, the ability to 'check for wrong notes' by what your ear hears, rather than by what your eye sees, is a tremendous time-saving tool.

 

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2. Understanding what a Computer Music-Notation Program actually does.

I. Fonts and Offsets.
Each mark made on a score is, from the computer's point-of-view, either (1) a single preset font character, (2) a sequence of font characters, or (3) a graphics-generated line or picture.

(1) Some examples of single music-font symbols include Clefs, Noteheads, Accidentals, Flags, Articulations and Dynamic Marks. Each font character is a predefined picture of one particular symbol, and each of these font definitions are associated with one key on the computer's keyboard (the "typewriter" keyboard, not the MIDI keyboard!) One entire set of defined characters is called a "font."
(2) Sequences ("strings") of font characters include all typed text within the score. These include Tempo Marks and Character Descriptions, Titles and Copyright Notices, Lyrics, Guitar Chords, and any other block of Text used to provide information.
(3) Graphics-Generated Lines and Pictures are not "set in granite" as are single fonts and font strings. The length or size of these marks depends on case-by-case factors. Examples of these types of marks include the staff lines, barlines, braces and brackets, note stems, slurs and ties, and crescendo and diminuendo hairpins. You can see that all of these marks need to be different lengths depending on the individual case. Barlines must be longer or shorter depending on whether a system contains 2 or 20 staves. The stem of a note five ledger lines above the staff has to be long enough to reach the center staff line, while a note within the staff has a relatively shorter stem.

The problem, when all is said and done, is this: The computer must place each font or graphic at some precise point on the page, at some horizontal and vertical distance from a fixed reference point - namely, the point at the exact upper left-hand corner of the page. Or, if you prefer to think in algebra-style terminology, each object must be placed at some (x,y) coordinate away from the page's origin point. Positive values are generally used to move items vertically up and horizontally right, while negative values are generally used to move items vertically down and horizontally left. (There are a very few exceptions to this.) In addition, each font character, character string, or graphic itself has an origin point, which is used to determine precisely where the mark will be placed.

It is helpful to realize that computer music-notation is structurally a "hierarchical" problem. Each level of structure is dependent on the structure immediately above it. Consider the following: You wish to place an accent mark over a certain note, and you want to decide where the accent mark will end up on the page. This would seem to be a trivial task if you are preparing a hand-written score - just write on the page the accent mark over the note! But to the computer it goes something like this: the accent mark is "attached" to some note, the note is "attached" to some measure (based on the width and meter signature of that measure), the measure is "attached" to some staff, the staff is "attached" to some staff-system, the staff-system is "attached" to some page (based on the size and page margins of that page.) So the entire problem becomes a set of coordinate offsets, from offsets, from offsets... To go back to the problem of the accent mark, the origin of the accent mark is offset from the origin of the notehead containing the accent mark; the origin of the notehead is offset from the origin of the measure containing that notehead; the origin of the measure is offset from the origin of the staff containing that measure, etc. Eventually, the exact coordinate of the accent mark relative to the entire page is calculated, and the computer monitor and the printer will be able to display the mark at the proper point.

Luckily for the user, the computer keeps track of all this math, and the user may utilize this information only as much as he or she wants to, or not at all. It is nice, however, to be aware that these numbers are there, and they can be used to your advantage. For example, if the 1st and 2nd Violins both begin playing pizzicato on the first beat of some measure, you can, by giving the same horizontal offset to the pizzicato label of both staves, ensure that the actual pizzicato labels themselves are vertically aligned. Or if you wish the pedal markings of piano music to be displayed in a nice neat line under the bottom of the lower staff, simply attach the pedal mark character to the measure (not to the individual notes) and give each instance the same vertical offset.

 

II. Global and Local Variables.
There is another important concept involved with using music-notation software. Most of the variables that determine which fonts to use, where to use them, their sizes, and what offsets to use, use two values: a global value and a local value. (Actually, two variables, each with one value!) The global values determine how something will look at first, while the local values can be used to "make exceptions" on a case-by-case basis. For example, a global value can specify how far an accidental will be placed to the left of a notehead. But there may be times when you would like just one specific accidental to be nudged slightly closer to, or farther from, the notehead, so you adjust just that one case and, whether you realize it or not, you are altering the local value (on just this one note) of the variable determining distance between accidentals and noteheads. Again, using the proper "tools" within the program (which are really subprograms and functions contained within the main program), you can drag, using the mouse, a specific accidental left or right, or edit whatever else it is you wish to edit, and never worry about the actual "values" of all these variables if you do not wish to.

In good music-notation software, the user can set global values and alter local values of hundreds of variables. There are two possible relationships between local and global values: the local value might replace the global value, or the local value might be added on to the global value as an offset. Let us consider the following aspect of adding lyrics to a score. A global value might be set so that the font size and type of each verse is set to 12-point Times font. If you had some reason for wanting, say, just the 3rd verse to be in a larger font, you could set the font size of the 3rd verse to 14-point. This would replace the 12-point size with the 14-point size. (It would not add the local 14 to the global 12 and produce 26-point font sizes!) On the other hand, you may wish a global value to indicate that the baseline of the lyrics (the imaginary line on which each character of each word seems to be sitting) is set -0.5 inches from the staff (below the staff). However, at one place the vocalist sings very low notes on ledger lines below the staff and suddenly you see your notes and your lyrics overlapping ("colliding", in computer parlance.) So, on just that one staff of just that one staff-system you will need to adjust the local value of the baseline distance. This type of value is a case of an "offset from an offset." If this local value were set at, say, -0.25 inches, then the baseline would be a quarter inch lower than it had been, so that the final position of the baseline would be -0.75 inches from the staff. (-0.5 + -0.25 = -0.75.) The programmers work very hard to choose the relationship between local and global values (i.e., local value replaces global value, or local value adds to global value) that seems to produce intuitive working methods for users. Nevertheless, it is good to understand which relationship exists for each variable so that you don't encounter strange types of mistakes.

 

3. The order of what to do!

There are frequently several approaches in deciding what is the best order to do the various steps involved with computer music-notation. Some people like to do things "assembly-line" style by doing all of one type of task from beginning to end. So they might first enter all the notes, then add all the slurs, then all of the articulation marks, then all of the dynamic marks, etc. This has the advantage of using only one tool at a time and, for some people, seems to get the job done more quickly (especially for those people that have a high value of "efficiency" in the first place.) Other people (like me) enjoy completing each measure entirely before going on to the next. Even though I might often go back and forth between several tools, I find it satisfying to see each measure completed properly before leaving it to go on to the next measure. You will have to see which works best for you.

Nevertheless, there are certain things which are best done in a correct order, whether you work "assembly-line" style or complete each measure one at a time. For example, you must enter a note before you can "attach" articulations or expression labels or lyrics to that note. Beyond that, there are more subtle considerations. Let us imagine that a stems-down note has a staccato mark attached to it. This same note is the last note of a group of notes under a slur. The question is: is it better to add the staccato mark or the slur first. Both the staccato mark and the slur will pop into their default (global value) positions without regard for each other. Most likely this will mean that the tip of the slur will overlap the staccato mark. Unfortunately, you will have to move one or the other in order to avoid this overlap. I personally think it looks better to leave the staccato mark in its default position, and move the slur tip slightly up. Upon attaching an item, the software usually puts you in a mode where you are immediately ready to edit further that item. So you see, in this case, it is better to add the staccato mark first, then add the slur and edit its endpoint location. If you add the slur first, and then the staccato mark, you will have to go back to the tool that you used to add the slur in order to move the slur's endpoint, which is slightly annoying. Learning the best order for these kinds of details is perhaps best learned through personal experience. Each move may only take a couple of seconds, but when it takes thousands upon thousands of moves in order to complete a score, you eventually begin to find shortcuts by doing things in the correct order and in the same order each time.

The next several paragraphs are for those who have seen the Finale application and would like to know generally in which order they should proceed.

In general, the order that I do things using Finale, and would recommend for beginners, in preparing, say, a large ensemble score is roughly as follows:

1. Set ALL Global variables to a value which you will most often use. In the program Finale, by Coda, it is essential that you begin to save your desired values in the "Finale Default File." If you notice that you are changing the local values of some parameter very often, (i.e., the coordinates of the endpoints of ties on tied notes) perhaps you should have set differently the global value of that parameter. Learn the contents of all "menus" so that you know where you can locate each global value.

2. Add all necessary staves, Name the staves, and specify with which clef each staff is to begin. Group the staves and add brackets (Grouped staves have barlines that extend through all staves of the group, unless you specify otherwise, as you would have to do in choral music.) In Finale 3.7 or higher, you can add group names, as well. Use the "Staff Tool."

3. (a) Add all necessary measures. (b) Determine a measure-numbering scheme. Set all parameters associated with measure numbering. Use (a) the "Measure Tool," and (b) the "Measure Number Tool."

4. (a) Set the key signature, if any, and (b) the meter signature of the first measure. Set any key signature changes or meter signature changes that occur throughout the composition. (If you are composing "as you go" directly into Finale, don't worry, you can make these kinds of changes at any point that you wish.) (c) Add double barlines and final barlines to the measures that require these. (d) Add Repeat Marks to the measures that require these. Use (a) the "Key Signature Tool," (b) the "Time Signature Tool," (c) the "Measure Attributes Tool," and (d) the "Repeat Tool."

5. Add "Score Expressions." These should be items that you would want to show up IN EVERY PART, even if the part is resting. These items include Tempo Marks, ritardandos and accelerandos, Fermatas and Rehearsal Letters, and any other texts that you wish to see in all parts. It is very important to learn to use "Staff Lists" so that you can show, say, a Tempo Mark above the Top Staff and the 1st Violin Staff within the Score, and yet have the Tempo Mark show up in ALL the extracted instrumental parts. Use the "Score Expression Tool."

6. Add all "Break a Multimeasure Rest" indications. It is crucial to realize that, in an extracted part, measures of rest will be grouped together into one measure with an enlarged rest symbol, and a large number indicating the number of measures to rest. Say, for example, that the Clarinet is resting from m.5 through m.14, and that there is a tempo change indicated at m.11. It would be quite incorrect to give the clarinet a multimeasure rest with the number "10" over it; if this happened the clarinetist would never realize that there was a tempo change at m.11. Instead, it should be given as two multimeasure rests, the first containing the number "6," and the second containing the number "4" as well as the tempo change. To accomplish this in Finale, it is essential that you select "Break a Multimeasure Rest" for m.10. Do this in the measure preceding each measure containing a Score Expression that you wish to be included in all the parts. It is important that you do this operation within the score prior to extracting parts. If you attempt to add "Break a Multimeasure Rest" indications to extracted parts themselves you will have to perform the same operation over and over again, once per part, whereas you only needed to have performed the operation a total of once if you had done so within the score. (Believe me, you can waste many hours if you neglect to add "Break a Multimeasure Rest" indications to your large-ensemble scores prior to extracting the parts!) Use the "Measure Attributes Tool."

7. (a) Input all of the notes (of the whole document, or of single measures at a time). (b) Add any clef changes that you may need. You may use "step-entry" techniques for inputting notes, whereby you use the computer's keyboard, or a MIDI keyboard, to enter notes one by one. (c) Or, you might want to learn about real-time transcription, where you play the music and Finale "captures" it. (d) You might want to transfer MIDI files from other sequencers into Finale, also. I tend to use step-entry using the computer's keyboard so as to keep my hands in one place (i.e., not moving around from computer keyboard, to mouse, to MIDI keyboard all the time.) Also, if you make a mistake with real-time transcription, some of the strange rhythmic errors that will creep into your score take more time to "fix" than if you had just step-entered it in the first place. (a) Use the "Speedy Entry Tool" to get quickest results for step-entry, though you will have to memorize all of the "Speedy Entry Keypad Commands." (b) Use the "Clef Tool." (c) Use the "Hyperscribe Tool" or the "Transcription Tool." (d) Under the FILE Menu, choose "Open," and set "Type" to "MIDI Sequencer File Format," and then choose your previously saved MIDI file.

8. Add all (1) articulations, (2) slurs and crescendo and diminuendo "hairpins", and (3) dynamics and any other expressive markings, such as molto espr., or cresc. poco a poco. As said earlier, the order that you add these items should be based on which items will need further editing after they are added. Add the items that will not need further editing first, and then the others. In general, with large scores, adding all the notes, articulations, slurs, dynamics and other expressive markings will take up about 50-60% of the time of the entire job. Use (1) the "Articulation Tool," (2) the "Smart Shape Tool," and (3) the "Staff Expression Tool."

9. Add Lyrics, if the piece requires them. Use the "Lyrics Tool."

10. Formatting, Part I. (You may wish to do this step prior to step #8.) (a) "Apply Note Spacing."Finale had no way of knowing what types of rhythms you were planning to use in each measure, so, now that you have entered the notes, you have to apply the proper horizontal spacing to each measure (one measure at a time, or all at once.) (b) If you are unsatisfied with Finale's default spacing, then manually position the notes of the measure further. Incidentally, you may "Apply Note Spacing" at earlier stages, as well. For example, if you just entered the notes of a complex measure in the 1st Violins of a large orchestral piece, you can do a quick "Apply Note Spacing" of just that one measure of just that one part, prior to adding slurs or articulations, so that the notes are temporarily not so "crunched together." It is not very appealing to attempt to add slurs, articulations, expressions or lyrics to the notes of a measure where the notes are so close to each other that it is difficult telling to which note you are attaching something! Nevertheless, it is not a bad idea for beginners to "Apply Note Spacing" to the entire document after they have entered all of the notes and lyrics. (a) Use the "Mass Mover Tool." (b) Use the "Measure Attributes Tool," and click the lower "handle" that appears on the right barline of the measure in question. Using this tool for horizontal positioning problems will keep each beat of all staves vertically aligned. DO NOT use the "Note Position Tool" within the "Special Tools" for correcting ordinary horizontal spacing problems; the "Note Position Tool" will cause beats to be vertically unaligned from one staff to another. (This tool is intended for exceptional situations, such as you would need in aleatoric music, or if you use "feathered beaming," or if you use very free rhythms where you are trying to avoid relationships between parts.)

11. Formatting, Part II. There are two main viewing modes in Finale: "Scroll View" and "Page View." If you have been (by default) in Scroll View up until now, it's now time to switch to Page View. The second formatting step includes (a) determining the page size (letter- or legal-sized or other); (b) determining the reduction/enlargement size for the pages and/or systems and/or staves of the document (I use between 78 and 84% for documents with about 10 or less staves, and as low as 52% for large orchestral scores with many staves); (c) determining the number of measures you want to include in each system; and (d), if your music contains lyrics, altering the baselines of lyrics on systems that require it. An important thing to know is: if you change the layout of a page and alter measure widths, choose "Update Layout" from the EDIT Menu. Choose this command often; it will help things immensely. (a) Use the "Page Layout Tool." (b) Use the "Resize Tool." (c) There are a couple of ways to do this in Finale, and they each have their usefulness. I personally think that using the "Mass Mover Tool" to "Fit Music" (using either the "arrow key" technique, or the MASS EDIT Menu) is a more powerful and flexible method than using the "Page Layout Tool" to "Group Measures." (d) Use the "Lyrics Tool."

12. Formatting, Part III. This step includes "Optimizing," choosing the number of staff-systems per page, and setting the vertical distance between staff-systems. Use the "Page Layout Tool."

The ability to "optimize" a score is, perhaps, one of the major reasons that I use Finale. Optimizing does two things:

It is important to apply optimization only after you are sure that all notes are entered into the score and have determined how many measures you want assigned to each system. If you optimize a staff-system where, say, the tuba was resting and you decided to remove the Tuba staff from that system, and then you changed your orchestrational mind and decided that the Tuba should double the Trombone, and so enter the notes into the Tuba staff, you will be very unhappy to discover that the Tuba staff is STILL MISSING from the optimized staff-system. The only way to get back the missing staff is to turn optimization off and reapply optimization all over again - which can be pretty distressing if you just finished spending 15 or 20 minutes properly spreading out all the staves of a densely textured system, only to discover that you have to do it all over again. (Trust me, I know all about this type of mistake. . .*&^%$#@!!!) So be careful to apply optimization last of all the formatting steps.

13. You should now tend to any "touch-up" kinds of editing in order to perfect the look of your score. (a) One persistent detail needing attention is the editing of slurs that break across staff-systems. You should adjust the endpoints of all such slurs if, because of the page-formatted staff-system breaks, they now overlap any other notational items. (b) Another detail involves the editing of the ties of tied notes. The small "continuation ties" that carry across a staff-system-break frequently need further editing. Somehow, even by adjusting the Global "Tie" Parameters in the OPTIONS Menu's "Document Settings" - "Music Options," or adjusting the Global "Tie End" Parameters found in the "Postscript Options," I find that I still need to edit many individual ties. You will notice that, often, ties of tied notes within chords (such as you would find in Piano music) seem to have different positional needs than do ties of single tied notes. (c) If your music contains lyrics, and you employ "Word Extensions" (those horizontal lines that extend from the last syllable of a word if that syllable is found on a tied note or under a group of slurred notes) then you might want to add those now (in Page View). In Finale 3.7.2 (the most current version as of the time of this writing) or lower, Word Extensions do not automatically carry across staff-system breaks. If, for example, a Word Extension is supposed to extend from m.4 through m.6, and it happens that m.4 is the final measure of one staff-system, then, what might have looked correct in Scroll View, will be incorrect in Page View: the Word Extension will start in m.4 and seem to extend off the right-hand side of the page. A technique that you can use to continue the Word Extension onto m.5 of the next staff-system is this: Attach a syllable to the first note of m.5 that consists only of an "Option-Space." An Option Space (obtained by holding down the Option Key and pressing the Space Bar) will look invisible but behave like any other syllable, so, therefore, you will be able to attach a Word Extension to it. (Note: An Option-Space syllable does need to be followed by a regular space, just like any other syllable.) There are numerous other small details that you might now wish to attend that are dependent on the specific nature of your score. The extent that you take the time to adjust these small items will be the extent that the overall "look" of your score will be enhanced. (a) Use the "Smart Shape Tool" and hold the Option Key down while editing slurs to obtain more powerful controls. (b) Use the Special Tools "Tie Tool." (c) Use the "Lyrics Tool."

 

14. Add Titles, Composer's Name, Page Numbering, Copyright notices, Dedication Statements, or any other Texts that you wish to attach to the page. These items should be attached to the page, not to specific notes or measures. Some of these items would best be added to your "Finale Default File", so that you do not have to repeat these operations over again. For example, you might create a title in your "Finale Default File" called "Title." You can define its font and size and its location in the "Finale Default File," and then, when you open a new document, all that work is ready to go and you merely need to change the actual words of the title. Use the "Text Tool" in "Page View." (In Finale 3.7, the Information Bar at the top of the document displays "Text Block Tool" rather than "Text Tool." The latter is how it is referred to in the 3.7 Addendum. This appears to be a hangover from earlier versions of Finale that made use of both (1) a "Text Block Tool" and (2) a "Title Tool" or, in Finale 2.6.3 or lower, a "Header/Footer Tool.")

15. Extract Parts. After you are sure the document is finished, extract the parts. The best method is to choose "Extract Parts" from the FILE menu and save each extracted part into it own document. Finale really does give you its best shot to prepare automatically all of the parts, but the fact of the matter is you will have to do some editing if you want your parts to look great. If you prepared a C-Score (untransposed score), do not forget to transpose the appropriate extracted parts. If you used a very small reduction (say, around 50%) within your score, remember to increase the size of the extracted parts (to around 80 or 85%) for the sake of performance readability. If you plan to include well worked-out page turns within the parts, you will have to spend the time creating the appropriate layout; sometimes you will have to force-group measures onto staff-systems rather than always use Finale's default groupings. If you wish to add "cues" to an extracted part document which were not included in that part within the score document, then you will have to plan on a good amount of time copying and pasting from the score to the parts. (It is very good that in the newer versions of Finale you can have more than one document open simultaneously.)

 

There are many other small types of operations (such as adding user-created graphics, adding guitar chord symbols, cross-staffing notes in two-staved piano music, or adding explanatory or "ossia" measures) that can be done using Finale, and you will have to decide at what point in the process you wish to incorporate them. If you need to change individual notehead shapes, or alter the shape of a note stem, or edit the appearance of the bracket of a quintuplet, then perhaps you should do those operations immediately after you have entered the notes, or perhaps you should do all these "extra" steps near the end . . . you decide!

Of course, there are other orderings of the basic notational steps that you might decide to use. The worst that can happen by doing things in a less than ideal order is that you will use a little extra time, but you will learn a lot in the process. You can always change things later: you can insert extra notes between existing notes, and you can insert extra measures between existing measures. You can add additional staves even after you thought you were almost done with the project. You can use MIDI to play your file at any point along the way. I would say, though, that the two most costly mistakes (in terms of feeling exasperated!) are (1) forgetting to add "Break a Multimeasure Rest" indications prior to extracting parts, and (2) optimizing staff-systems and removing blank staves, editing the vertical spacing of a complex system, and then realizing you need to group measures onto staff-systems differently or that you need to add notes to that missing (i.e., optimized out) staff. The more global values that you take the time set in your "Finale Default File," the easier your next copy job will be. For example, I have already defined measure numbering and page numbering in my "Finale Default File." Also, any terms (i.e. espr., rubato, etc.), or graphic shapes, that you use often are worth adding to your "Staff Expression" library within your "Finale Default File." If you remember the hierarchical nature of the "offsets from offsets from offsets" approach to Finale you will often be able to think logically what the best thing to do would be. Finally, do read the manuals and the tutorials; they are very important and valuable sources of information!

 

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4. Considerations.

There are some factors involved with using computer music-notation software that must be acknowledged, especially by young composers. Certain traditional procedures are not out-of-date just because you use a computer. For example, let us discuss again the question of determining whether or not a passage is the 'right' length. A traditional composition teacher would tell a student to conduct the passage in their head while following the score with their eyes to decide if the proportions felt right. This is still extremely good advice, even if you are listening to MIDI playback at the same time. The conscious act of conducting, while looking AND listening, adds valuable insight into your own work. You will have to try out this discipline to see that it is true.

Please remember that the art of music notation is very old, and has taken centuries to evolve. I personally have great respect for this tradition. Engravers over the years have learned why placing a mark in a certain way, at a certain place on the page, adds both greater clarity of purpose and visual attractiveness to the score. If you understand the reasoning of these 'rules' you will enjoy your own notational activities much more. Go ahead and read a book on music notation! The one thing NEVER to say is: 'but the computer did it that way.' The computer is just a tool, and you are the creator. Learn to use the tool as well as you can. There are some things that you have to work at in order to get correct results using a computer (i.e., the horizontal spacing of notes within a measure that employs complex rhythms, the vertical spacing between staves so as to avoid overlapping marks [collisions], the contour of slur marks, etc.) Getting the computer to do what YOU want it to do is fun; just accepting what the computer does prior to your intervention is not fun. Do not choose the PRINT command until you have determined the computer did what you really wanted and meant it to do.

While the computer has introduced a kind of perfection with regards to transferring information from scores to extracted parts, performing transposition, and numbering measures, there are still human errors that can be made while working on the score itself. There are certain types of errors that a computer would never make, such as misnumbering the measures of just one of a set of parts. But there are certain types of errors that a hand-copyist would never make, that a computer (user) just might make. Let's think of the following situation in some orchestral score: a measure of 4/4 time is supposed to contain the rhythm [quarter-note, quarter-rest, half-note]. It is conceivable, say, that a hand-copyist would accidentally omit the quarter-rest, but, if he did, the chances are very good that he would nevertheless place the half-note aligned under the THIRD beat relative to the other parts. If a computer user accidentally omits the quarter-rest while inputting notes into this score, the half-note will directly follow the quarter-note, and therefore be placed on the SECOND beat relative to the other parts, leaving a space at the end of the measure. Traditional hand-copyists seem to be incapable of understanding how a computer could so thoroughly mis-align the beats. Luckily, it is not that hard to understand and even less hard to fix: simply insert the quarter-rest, and the half-note will pop right into the correct place under the third beat. So, you see, computer-copying and hand-copying have propensities for making different kinds of notational mistakes, but in either case it is the human responsible for fixing the mistakes, not the computer.

 

The computer, when used properly, is a powerful tool for the art of music notation. It is ultra-rational, in a way that a sentient being never would quite be! The computer does things with incredible speed and accuracy but without one iota of understanding, feeling, intention or responsibility. These latter four traits, as well as others, of course, are the domain of the human being. If you are a composer or copyist that takes pride in doing a job well, in presenting a musical score in the finest possible way, then the computer has provided a means for accomplishing your goals. Good luck!

 
 

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Copyright September 1996,
updated February 2004.
Kristine H. Burns,
Florida International University
Questions? Contact me.